US Soccer Season to Start in March

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, January 23, 2002

Major League Soccer, with two fewer teams, will start its season March 23 with a full schedule of games and will keep on playing through the World Cup despite the absence of top U.S. players.

The U.S. team plans to leave for the World Cup about May 22 and does not finish the first round until June 14. Because of the U.S. Cup tournament, likely to start about May 9, MLS teams likely will be without top U.S. players for more than a month.

On Jan. 8, MLS folded the Miami Fusion and Tampa Bay Mutiny. Each of the 10 remaining teams will play 28 games, with the regular season ending Sept. 22. At 26 weeks, the regular season extends two weeks longer than last year.

The opening day of MLS play has Chicago at Columbus, New England at New York/New Jersey, San Jose at Dallas, Colorado at Kansas City and DC United at Los Angeles under the schedule released Thursday.

Eighty-five percent of the games will be scheduled for weekends or holidays, including 77 percent of games on Saturdays.

Five of the 10 teams in the league, which began in 1996, are operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group: Chicago, Colorado, DC United, Los Angeles and New York/New Jersey. Lamar Hunt operates two other teams, Columbus and Kansas City.